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Publications

ESCAP Meeting Documents is a selective listing of annotated extracts from documents and other materials prepared for meetings.

It lists all title entries with complete bibliographic descriptions and annotations in alphabetical order. An assigned reference number under each meeting document can identify an entry. The entry contains multiple descriptors or keywords representing the content of the material. This issue lists all meeting documents produced by the substantive divisions of ESCAP in the year 2013, as deposited in the ESCAP Library.

The Asia-Pacific Statistics Newsletter, Third Quarter 2014, provides information on the "Without better evidence, the next development agenda will not be achieved"; features an Interview with the Executive Secretary of ESCAP; provides update on the areas of work; and announces important events and meetings.

This policy brief, issued as part of the Trade Insights series, reviews the role of safeguards in the Asia-Pacific region and discusses whether such measures promote or hinder liberalization.

The Trade Insights series summarizes current trade related issues; offers examples of good practice in trade policymaking; and helps disseminate key research findings of relevance to policy. The series is intended to inform both trade and development practitioners and the general public.

This policy brief, issued as part of the Trade Insights series, reviews the recent usage of non-tariff measures (NTMs) in the automotive sector in the Republic of Korea, with a specific focus on technical barriers to trade (TBTs). It finds that, despite provisions to reduce TBTs in recent trade agreements with the US and EU, TBTs and other non-tariff barriers remain a substantial barrier to entry in the Korean automotive market.

This brief provides a summary of the TIR system and introduces the most important attributes of the future eTIR system. It highlights the fact that, for many countries worldwide including those in the Asia-Pacific region, the TIR system is an important tool for international transit and transport facilitation. It also illustrates how, by incorporating modern ICT technologies, the eTIR system will further enhance transit and transport facilitation while further securing government revenues.

The Annual Report 2014 outlines the work programme and activities of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific through case studies and highlights during 2013-2014. It includes reporting of successes, resource mobilization, capacity building and examples of cooperation between ESCAP and its stakeholders. It takes time to detail programmes delivered across the region, looking at both the bigger picture and work done to further development in the subregions.

The Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report (APTIR) is a recurrent publication prepared by the Trade and Investment Division of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. It provides information on and independent analyses of trends and developments in: (a) intra- and inter-regional trade in goods and services; (b) foreign direct investment; (c) trade facilitation measures; (d) trade policy measures; and (e) preferential trade policies and agreements.

There is a pressing need for the countries in the Asia-Pacific region to establish their own sustainable mechanism to monitor the effectiveness of trade and transport facilitation reforms and measures and identify solutions to streamline and optimize trade and transport process. Although existing global trade facilitation performance surveys and databases provide useful information on benchmarking and raise awareness, they do not provide sufficiently detailed information to develop or update national trade and transport facilitation action plans.

ESCAP supports governments in Asia-Pacific in implementing measures to efficiently involve the private sector in infrastructure development. Developing case studies is part of this effort and promotes exchange of experience among the countries of the region.

Case 1: Traffic Demand Risk / The case of Bangkok’s Skytrain (BTS)
The following case study examines the issue of traffic demand risk and sheds light on how the problem of inaccurate ridership forecasts can impact a PPP project by using the example of the Bangkok SkyTrain.

Countries that implement trade facilitation reforms and enhance trade efficiency and connectivity are generally expected to attract more foreign direct investments. This paper is a first attempt to quantify the potential impact of trade facilitation on FDI flows. Using a unique bilateral dataset on FDI flows covering both OECD and developing economies in Asia and the Pacific, we estimate gravity models of FDI featuring relevant trade costs and trade facilitation indicators.